with Sympathy

These kinds of cards are hard to have to make and send aren’t they? Those times when someone we care about has lost someone they love.
This card is for a friend of mine who has just recently lost her dad. My heart aches for her and her family who are mourning the loss of a wonderful man in their lives.

I decided to make this card using the colors of Dawn McVey’s Color Inspiration Challenge. This is my first time participating with Dawn’s challenges although I’ve been admiring the challenge submission since the first round.

I thought these colors were so soft and soothing. Perfect for a sympathy card or even a wedding or anniversary card.

Sorry, I know the photo is not great. It was a little too dark by the time I got around to photographing it and there are shadows all over the place.

supplies: stamps: Beautiful Borders; card stock: Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, vellum; Ink: Basic Black (Stampin’ Up!); scallop patterned paper, patterned paper frame (making Memories); butterfly punch (Martha Stewart); Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug); ribbon

I just want to give you a heads up about a tutorial I’ll be posting on 52 sketches 52 weeks tomorrow. It’s a tutorial on distressing techniques, so hop on over there and check it out tomorrow.

The cards

Good afternoon, everyone!

I feel a little sluggish today, mostly because it’s raining, but also because I just woke from a much needed afternoon nap and I really felt like sleeping the whole afternoon away! The last few weeks have been so busy and I think I’m still trying to catch up on lost sleep.

Today I thought I’d begin showing you the projects I submitted for this year’s Artisan Award. It gives me kind of a sad feeling to be sharing these with you, because I would much rather be a winner and have to wait until mid July, and getting to share them now just means it wasn’t my year to win. Oh well! I sincerely hope you enjoy each project and can appreciate all the effort and thought that went into each one.

Let’s begin with the cards, shall we?

I did a lot of distressing and inking on this one and really loved how it turned out. My favorite thing about this card is the tiny little “leather” belt around it’s middle!
Supplies: (all stampin’ Up!) Wanted stamp set; Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Naturals Ivory card stock; Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Baja Breeze classic ink; Versamark pad; White and clear embossing powder, silver hodge podge hardware.

I like to do some simple cards and some more intricate. This one is a simple one but I really like the simplicity of it.
Supplies: Eastern Bloom and Beautiful Borders stamp sets; Sage Shadow, Apricot Appeal, Whisper White card stock; Sage Shadow, Apricot appeal, Riding Hood Red classic ink; Riding hood Red Taffeta ribbon; scallop edge punch.

This one was probably my favorite of all the cards I sent in. It turned out just as I imagined, which is rare!
Supplies: Itty Bitty Buds, All Holidays stamp sets; Barely Banana, Whisper White, and Vellum card stock; Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Real Red, Orchid Opulence, Basic Black classic ink; Whisper White satin ribbon; scallop edge punch; paper piercing tool

I love the gradient colors on this one. It was a fun card to make and I liked the end results.
Supplies: Beautiful borders stamp set; Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, and Vellum card stock; Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa, Chocolate Chip classic ink; Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon; button latte; Linen thread; Lots of Tags sizzlets die; paper piercing tool

Isn’t this little birdie so cute? Love him! This card was made using the Bigz Scallop Circle die cut in a little from the folded edge.
supplies: Pun Fun and Crazy for Cupcakes stamp sets; Brilliant Blue, Tangerine tango, So Saffron, Whisper white, Ballet Blue card stock; Sweet Slumber Designer paper; Brilliant Blue, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron classic ink; Black Stazon; Whisper White grosgrain; Bold Brights brads; Scallop Circle Bigz die

There ya go! I hope you liked them.
I will share the scrapbook pages later. Probably next week sometime. then I’ll share the 3D items after that.

Have a good one!

Sweet Little Cupcake

Last evening I was invited to a surprise baby shower for a friend of mine who is expecting. She has three boys and the baby that she’s expecting is a girl! I wanted to make a little something girlish and sweet for her in celebration of this new baby girl who will enter the world in a couple of months so I made this basket of baby girl goodies with a cupcake theme for her and her baby girl.

The basket is decorated with a bit of patterned paper (Stampin’ Up!) and a little cupcake sticker (Jolee’s Boutique)

Check out these adorable cupcakes! They are made from little socks.

I got the idea from Lauren Meader. You can see her instruction video here. They are so much fun to make. I stitched a button on top of mine with embroidery thread. The thread goes the whole way through from top to bottom to keep it all together. Mine kept falling apart. Probably because I didn’t use two sizes of socks like Lauren recommends. I like the button on top, though. I think it looks like a cute little cherry. it sort of dresses them up a bit.

This is the card I made to go with it.

And the inside:

I love being able to make fun gifts like this using my scrapbook supplies to dress things up and add some flair. Just a bit of paper and a little stamping or some stickers really can bring life to an otherwise just OK idea.

Gotta go. This is my last day to prep and serve the lunch meal at school (thank God!!!). Then tomorrow and Saturday I’m off to a scrapbook retreat at Page By Page. I’m looking forward to scrapping with some great friends and hopefully making some new ones.

Have a good one!

Nicole’s challenge

I’m sneakin’ in a late one for ya! I don’t usually blog on Saturday nights because I’m usually hanging out with the fam. But today my boys had a day out with their daddy and Chloe and I spent the day together except our day didn’t turn out at all like I was anticipating. It ended up being a stressful kind of a day. So now my guys are watching tv and I am spending some “me” time in my craft space. What a great way to relax!

I’ve been wanting to do Nicole’s challenge all day. It’s based on Dawn’s wonderful color combos. Seriously, this girl can rock a color combo like no other!!! She’s great!

I chose the brown, aqua and yellow combo in this post. It’s the second card down.

I inked up my cuttlebug embossing folder with white craft ink and ran it through my Big Shot. Then I embossed it with white craft ink to make the paisley patterned background panel. I’m still not sure I like the way that turned out, but I sure do love this color combination.
Oh, and I used some of that new, totally yummy, chocolate fine glitter from Stampin’ Up! I literally squealed when I opened my package and saw this new glitter. The colors are fabulous!!!
Oh, and one more thing. The gemstones above the chandelier are actually clear ones that I colored with a brown sharpie. Cool huh?

OK, gotta go. It’s almost time for baths for the kids.

Two challenges combined

Hi everyone! How is your week going? This week has seemed to go by slowly for me and I’m glad that tomorrow is Friday.

I know I said I’d show you some fun treat holders later this week, and I will. It’s just that when I saw the Colors of Kristina’s Color Inspiration Challenge this week I knew I had to play. And it was a good reason to further procrastinate on making those treat holders. I have to make about 50 of them for my son’s classmates and I am just not in the mood. Their Valentine’s Day party is going to be held on Monday, so I have the weekend to get them all done. Just great for my procrastination problem, huh?

I thought I’d combine two sketches into one this week. First off we have Kristina’s challenge. Here are the colors:
Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Basic Gray, and Whisper white.

I love black and white with a punch of color! It’s classy and elegant and edgy.

I’m combining it with this week’s Mojo Monday sketch challenge which is this:

And the end result.

See, another reason I just HAD to play today is because I just got an order today of some brand new stuff from Stampin’ Up! I got some wonderful new accessories and deliciously yummy designer paper that just makes me so happy. I had to use some of it on my card. Isn’t that red floral paper simply stunning?

The collections I got this time around are Pink Flamingo (sooo beautiful!!!), Urban Oasis (really great for those masculine projects), and Sweet Slumber (you simply must check out the new textured DSP from Stampin’ Up! It is divine!). I used Pink Flamingo and Urban Oasis on my card today.

There are a few more collections I know I want to add to my stash sometime soon, but for now I will enjoy these. I can hardly wait to start scrapbooking with them.

Check back tomorrow, folks for a peek at those promised decked out treats.

Color Inspiration #40

Hey all! Happy Friday to you. I’m just squeezing in Kristina’s Color Inspiration Challenge before I need to get a few last minute household stuff done and then pack for a crop tomorrow.

Here’s the challenge. More Mustard, So Saffron, Taken with Teal, Old Olive, and Whisper White.

I chose to substitute Tempting Turquoise for the Taken with Teal.

And here are a few close ups of the details of the page.
I inked my Cuttlebug folder before embossing to make this fun sun embellishment.

I hand wrote the word fun onto a transparency sheet and cut it out. It’s adhered with strategically placed glue dots.

All supplies used on this page are Stampin’ Up! except for the Cuttlebug embossing folder, chipboard letters and transparency sheet.

Have a great weekend everyone! I’m off to crop with some wonderful scrapbooking friends of mine all day tomorrow. See you next week!

chocolate and stamping go hand in hand

I don’t know about you, but there is a jar of chocolate in my craft area at all times. I am positive that there is nothing that gives my brain a little nudge than a few pieces of chocolate.

Last Saturday I had a card making class focused on chocolate. I thought I’d share the cards we made with you all.
Each of the cards we made used either Chocolate Chip or Close To Cocoa card stock and a few had some other fun chocolate features as well.

This one features a yummy chocolate dipped strawberry as the focal point.

We water colored this cute mug of hot cocoa for the front of this card…

and on the inside it holds a pouch of hot cocoa mix.

I’m loving this brown and lavender color combo right now. It’s a great alternative to reds and pinks for those Valentine’s Day cards.

I chose the colors from the new Bella Birds paper for this one. Brown, pink, yellow and blue.

And last, but not least our scratch and sniff chocolate cupcake. We also had chocolate cupcakes for lunch after we were done making our cards.

All of these cards would be great to give to a special friend for Valentine’s day or any time.

This chocolate theme was a lot of fun to prepare. I think I will have to try some more themes like this in the future. Do you have any favorite projects that involve chocolate?

Mojo Monday sketch challenge

Hello again. I also had this card to share today, but figured it should have it’s own separate post because of the bulk of my last post.
Every Monday the girls over at the Mojo Monday blog

Wicked fun!

Over at SplitCoastStampers they have a challenge each month for Stampin’ Up! demonstrators called the WICKED challenge. The challenge is a three-part challenge. Sketch, color combo, and technique. This month I decided to try the challenge, but only got as far as the technique part of it. I have to say that this was the most fun I’ve had learning a new technique in a long time!

I love glitter and so this technique just simply made me happy!
The technique is called sparkly stained glass and if you would like to try it you can find a tutorial here.

It’s fairly easy too! It just takes a bit of time and makes somewhat of a mess with all the glitter. But doesn’t it look FABULOUS when it’s all done?!
Here’s another card I did with this technique.

You need several different colors of glitter, a line art stamp set, some acetate, stazon ink, and some liquid glue. I used crystal effects for my adhesive.

Be sure to click on the photos to view them larger to get a better idea of how these actually look in real life. They just make me want to run my finger over it and touch them, it looks so pretty!
I think I have officially convinced myself to try the WICKED challenge (at least part of it anyway) each month. If it’s this much fun I won’t want to quit!!!

Top Note wall decor

I’ve got a fun project that I’m excited to share with you today. This is a version one of the 3-D items I made for the Leadership displays, so if you were at Leadership you may have already seen this.

The main tools I used for this project are the Top Note Bigz Die, the exclusive Stampin’Up! die for the Sizzix Big Shot die cutter, and my oval Coluzzle. There is an opening at the top so that the photos can be removed.

It can be hung up on a little hook, so this makes a really fun home decor project. I showed my demonstrator friends how to make this last week and we all had so much fun. Everyone chose a different designer series paper to use, so they all were unique and original. It was fun to see all the different styles.

I made mine using the new just released stamp set, friends 24-7, that I mentioned in my previous post. I also used brand new designer paper, Bella Birds. The colors in this paper are so soft and pretty. So springy!

I just hung mine up today in the bathroom that my kids share.
This is the perfect size for holding wallet size photos. Another option would be to make all three Top Note pieces to be able to hold a photo. Or, another option would be to just make a decorative wall hanging with some favorite quotes and no photos. I think you could make a lot of different versions of this project to suit your style and personal preference.

I hope you liked it as much as I did! Have a great day, everyone!